I received and email yesterday from Andrea. Andrea was on the X-Weighted TV show and it is going to me on TV this Wednesday night for those of us here in Canada. I thought that the email was insightful and asked for if I could post it here, Andrea agreed:

I was reading some of your articles on X-weighted and just wanted to give you a heads up that on the Wednesday July 9th episode, Binge Buddies, you will see my  formerly flabby butt get kicked by Paul Plakas. Paul was absolutely the best thing to ever happen  to me and he is such a great guy.  Carrie and I(my neighbour, and duo on the show) stayed with Paul for a weekend so that we could attend the launch party for the show and he was so good to us!

If you just give yourself over to him, he will brutally tell you what  you have so needed to hear, but, unlike most other’s he takes you by the hand, completely  invests in you and shows you the way.  In general the people who hate Paul are not ready for the  changes they claim to want to make sooo bad.  Carrie and I agreed that if we got this  opportunity that we would NOT waste a minute, we would take full advantage of all the opportunities we  were given and make Paul proud.  So if you want to watch a great episode, tune in on Weds. and  let me know what you think!!!

In fact I think that it is a great opportunity for someone to get on a TV show and have that pressure of losing weight. Whether the show is Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp, Biggest Loser, or X-Weighted there is an extra sense of pressure to do well and to not give up. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

We all love watching X-Weighted and one of the real highlights of the show is not just the transformations in just a few months but also the no nonsense way in which Paul Plakas helps, pushes and fights against what people want to do in order to make them that much better.

I just saw on a comment from Paul on my X-Weighted post that Paul has his own website now which is great!

Paul’s fans as well as many people that want to be on the X-Weighted show email me and comment quite often so now people can go straight to the source. I am not sure how much Paul has to do with getting people onto the X-Weighted show but perhaps if you visit his website you will be able to find this out.

Also, if you live in the Edmonton area Paul Plakas is a personal trainer as well as a fitness show trainer and I am sure would be a fantastic one. Visit the new site and find out more about Paul and send him an email.

X-Weighted is a TV show that is shown on the life network here in Canada. The idea of X-Weighted is that the story of regular people losing weight would be interesting to watch and in fact it is. The host of X-weighted is a trainer from Edmonton by the name of Paul Plakas. Paul is a great host for a weight loss show because he goes into peoples houses and is not afraid of offending them with his tips and is really great for giving workout ideas. Also, as a Canadian Paul is never an ass but he doesn’t give anyone much of a chance to make any excuses either.

I watched X-Weighted a couple of times last season but earlier this week was a standard episode that I thought was great to watch especially for the lack of hype that this show uses to bring across the idea of weight loss over a longer period of time. The structure of X-Weighted is that you will have an intro where you see the life situation of someone that wants to lose weight, then Paul Plakas measures and weighs the person, looks in their kitchen and does a fitness assessment. Later in the show you have workouts and a a weight in and finally at the end there is an official X-Weighted final weigh in. Great drama and great info all in an hour

Anatomy of an X Weighted Episode

The X-Weighted episode that I saw started with Michelle, a lady that was over weight and would like to lose 50 pounds. She had problems with one of her three children being Autistic and becoming a problem and her whole family leaned on her for support in various parts of their lives. Because of Michelle’s work schedule and early mornings she would eat out at fast food places once or twice EVERY day. Now we know this ladies background.

First things first for the meeting with her trainer . Michelle laid out her situation and then told her trainer that she wanted to lose 50 pounds in the next six months. Her trainer talked to her about her exercise requirements, eating requirements, tested her current level of fitness and then followed her around for a day. A couple of day later Michelle met with her trainer for a training session and then we get to see how Michelle reacts over the next few months to life, changes and weight loss.

In the end Michelle lost I believe 44 pounds and was really happy with how things went for her weight loss. Her life was a series of traumatic events over the time of her weight loss and it really makes you feel for her and her family.

X-Weighted is a great show in that it really walks you through how real people lose weight while living their regular lives, this is a classic idea of a reality show where the people are in their own surrounding much like our own and every great result is hard fought. X-Weighted is on in Canada on many nights of the week on the Slice Network (formerly the Life Network).

I have written quite a bit over the last week about what you need as far as home fitness equipment goes but thought I would just round out this week with an overview of what you should have for equipment. So here is what I think that you should try to accumulate over the next while.

Mats – The most basic piece of fitness equipment is an exercise mat. You need an exercise mat for doing stretching as well as for doing abs and an exercise mat is always good for lying on when you are tired from a tough set or some cardio

Dumbells – Dumbells are those short bars with the weights on them. Who cares about them all matching but you want to probably have pairs of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds and sometimes even a pair of 3 pound weights are good to carry while you are running or doing other cardio. These all come in handy for lots of your weight exercises

Barbell – This is just a big long bar. The barbell bar weighs I believe 20 pounds although ones at the gym will weight 45 pounds. Then of course you need weights to put on this bar. Remember that anytime that you are using a barbell you are lifting more weight and in the case of bench presses or even military presses you can get yourself into real trouble if you do not have a spotter. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Plakas is the fitness trainer on the TV show X-weighted. I have written about Xweighted before and the show itself is really good from the standpoint of the ideas. Paul Plakas tries his best on the show to help people from where they are now and their attitudes about food and exercise and one of the nice things about Paul is that he is tough on people.

What tends to happen to most people it seems on X weighted is that they change their eating and exercise and of course the early returns are not great compared to the sacrifices, no one seems to get the idea that they may be gaining muscle mass so the scale does in fat lie (more on that in another post). I like watching Paul lightly berate the people about their attitudes about food, exercise, and fitness in general.

OK so here is the reason for this post, and I hope Paul does see this at some point, people email me thanking me and the TV show all the time for the help that they have seen in the show and the inspiration that the show is to them. I am not Paul but it is nice to see how people feel about the show and the questions that they have. If I can find Paul Plakas email address at some point I will try my best to forward messages as I give them but please if you are looking for Paul you should try the Slice network which was formerly the Life Network.